Hybrid App design

A hybrid app is designed to work on multiple platforms. It’s written using a single standard code language (such as C# or a combination of HTML5 and Javascript) and then compiled to be executed on each platform. Device specific interactions will normally be managed by the use of plugins for that operating system.

The biggest advantage of hybrid apps is that they enable support for multiple operating systems at a more cost effective price point than developing multiple native apps. Users, as long as the development is done well, will not normally be able to distinguish whether an app is native or hybrid. In fact users, in general, don’t care about how your app is developed – they just care if it works on their device and does what they expect it to do.

There are disadvantages to hybrid app development. It can present serious challenges if the app requires complex interaction from the device – there’s a limit to what plugins can achieve on this front. The costs of supporting a hybrid application may be higher than the costs of supporting a native application too